[ANSWERED] Track Testing/Validation
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[ANSWERED] Track Testing/Validation
The original question is here.
Clairvoyantwolf asked:
It was mentioned in a previous Ask Tadge response that the Corvette Team had never tested at Willow Springs, and after testing there the "Rough Track Calibration" was created for the Magnetic Selective Ride Control. What tracks does the Corvette Team regularly test at and what unique insights does each venue bring?
It was mentioned in a previous Ask Tadge response that the Corvette Team had never tested at Willow Springs, and after testing there the "Rough Track Calibration" was created for the Magnetic Selective Ride Control. What tracks does the Corvette Team regularly test at and what unique insights does each venue bring?
Tadge answered:
There are hundreds or tracks in North America and perhaps thousands around the world. We pick tracks based on more variables than most people would imagine. Here are a few:
Availability: Most track owners want to keep the facility as busy as possible so booking can be a challenge. We need to find tracks that have openings when we believe we will have a vehicle ready to test. So we tend to reserve time well ahead based on long term planning. Weather plays a role here too. We don't get a lot of second chances to test based on our tight timelines so the weather outlook based on the time of the year has to be good.
Facility particulars: Quality garage and work spaces are important since much of our work involves on-site data analysis and mechanical and electrical work on the cars themselves. Product security can be important too - We are often testing vehicles that have yet to be announced.
Distance from Michigan. Our "home base" for development work is Milford, Michigan. We test there year 'round, but track work cannot be done in the Winter. Traveling great distances to find warm weather tracks is inefficient (cars sitting on a truck are useless assets) and expensive.
Historical testing data: Once we start visiting a track with some regularity, we accumulate an enormous database of vital statistics. Having those reference data is extremely valuable as we assess new model's performance vs older cars. When you are in the business of continuous improvement, high fidelity historical data is mandatory.
Of course the point of this question is the character of the tracks themselves. Each track will have unique characteristics that challenge the vehicle dynamics in different ways. A car optimized at a single track will likely perform poorly at certain others, so over the years we have developed a portfolio of testing venues that do a good job of helping us develop a well-rounded car that performs quite well at almost every track. Obviously this is not a perfect science as the Willow Springs example shows. We put together a list of our most frequently used tracks and the learning from each. We do occasionally use other facilities, but the vast majority of our testing occurs on those listed here:
Our home track, the Milford Road Course: The MRC has a remarkable density of corners. The car is rarely going straight. Also, almost all the turns have elevation or camber changes mid-corner. It was intentionally designed this way.... We tried to bring the most challenging sections of the most challenging tracks around the world together in our backyard. As a result, we can make very good predictions about how the car will behave on tracks our customers are likely to run. The correlation is especially good between the MRC and VIR (also pretty good with Road Atlanta).
Virginia International Raceway: VIR is our primary outside development track. Some of the unique features here are the high speed S's which have significant elevation change and rapid throttle movements at very high speeds. These S's combined with many lower speed corners make this a very diverse track that helps us develop both suspension, braking and chassis control systems.
Road Atlanta - Road Atlanta provides a couple steady state higher speed corners which allow us to do more thorough aerodynamic tuning. It also has a very long straight to challenge powertrain robustness.
Willow Springs - Willow is now a priority and has the fastest average speed of any western track. Turns 8 and 9 are well over 100mph and are the best opportunity we have to spend time working on aero tuning. It also has a pavement texture that is unique to the west coast that requires unique compromises to suspension calibrations.
Spring Mountain - Spring Mountain offers two main track configurations. The older 2.2 mile is very good for lubrication robustness with two long duration corners in quick succession. These corners are so good for lube system testing that we duplicated them on the MRC. Their East course provides very high brake energy and is used for brake thermal development.
Laguna Seca: The famous Monterey track provides a similar surface as Willow Springs but with much slower cornering speeds. It is challenging to Performance Traction Management (PTM) calibrations and MR tuning. It is the highest brake energy track we have ever used for testing.
Grattan - As well as being close to the proving grounds, Grattan provides a well-controlled jump where we can calibrate ABS and MR behavior with the car fully in the air. We duplicated this jump at the MRC as well.
Nurburgring - We use the Nurburgring since it has more road input (bumps, crests, dips, jumps, camber changes, etc.) and more high speed corners than any other track in the world. Obviously it's length is unique but even if it were shorter it would provide tuning opportunities that can't be found on any other racetrack in the world.
One might also wonder why we don't use the recently opened National Corvette Museum Motorsports park. Corvette Racing has already tested there with good results so we may add it to the menu someday. In the meantime, it has been received very well and is quite busy already!
There are hundreds or tracks in North America and perhaps thousands around the world. We pick tracks based on more variables than most people would imagine. Here are a few:
Availability: Most track owners want to keep the facility as busy as possible so booking can be a challenge. We need to find tracks that have openings when we believe we will have a vehicle ready to test. So we tend to reserve time well ahead based on long term planning. Weather plays a role here too. We don't get a lot of second chances to test based on our tight timelines so the weather outlook based on the time of the year has to be good.
Facility particulars: Quality garage and work spaces are important since much of our work involves on-site data analysis and mechanical and electrical work on the cars themselves. Product security can be important too - We are often testing vehicles that have yet to be announced.
Distance from Michigan. Our "home base" for development work is Milford, Michigan. We test there year 'round, but track work cannot be done in the Winter. Traveling great distances to find warm weather tracks is inefficient (cars sitting on a truck are useless assets) and expensive.
Historical testing data: Once we start visiting a track with some regularity, we accumulate an enormous database of vital statistics. Having those reference data is extremely valuable as we assess new model's performance vs older cars. When you are in the business of continuous improvement, high fidelity historical data is mandatory.
Of course the point of this question is the character of the tracks themselves. Each track will have unique characteristics that challenge the vehicle dynamics in different ways. A car optimized at a single track will likely perform poorly at certain others, so over the years we have developed a portfolio of testing venues that do a good job of helping us develop a well-rounded car that performs quite well at almost every track. Obviously this is not a perfect science as the Willow Springs example shows. We put together a list of our most frequently used tracks and the learning from each. We do occasionally use other facilities, but the vast majority of our testing occurs on those listed here:
Our home track, the Milford Road Course: The MRC has a remarkable density of corners. The car is rarely going straight. Also, almost all the turns have elevation or camber changes mid-corner. It was intentionally designed this way.... We tried to bring the most challenging sections of the most challenging tracks around the world together in our backyard. As a result, we can make very good predictions about how the car will behave on tracks our customers are likely to run. The correlation is especially good between the MRC and VIR (also pretty good with Road Atlanta).
Virginia International Raceway: VIR is our primary outside development track. Some of the unique features here are the high speed S's which have significant elevation change and rapid throttle movements at very high speeds. These S's combined with many lower speed corners make this a very diverse track that helps us develop both suspension, braking and chassis control systems.
Road Atlanta - Road Atlanta provides a couple steady state higher speed corners which allow us to do more thorough aerodynamic tuning. It also has a very long straight to challenge powertrain robustness.
Willow Springs - Willow is now a priority and has the fastest average speed of any western track. Turns 8 and 9 are well over 100mph and are the best opportunity we have to spend time working on aero tuning. It also has a pavement texture that is unique to the west coast that requires unique compromises to suspension calibrations.
Spring Mountain - Spring Mountain offers two main track configurations. The older 2.2 mile is very good for lubrication robustness with two long duration corners in quick succession. These corners are so good for lube system testing that we duplicated them on the MRC. Their East course provides very high brake energy and is used for brake thermal development.
Laguna Seca: The famous Monterey track provides a similar surface as Willow Springs but with much slower cornering speeds. It is challenging to Performance Traction Management (PTM) calibrations and MR tuning. It is the highest brake energy track we have ever used for testing.
Grattan - As well as being close to the proving grounds, Grattan provides a well-controlled jump where we can calibrate ABS and MR behavior with the car fully in the air. We duplicated this jump at the MRC as well.
Nurburgring - We use the Nurburgring since it has more road input (bumps, crests, dips, jumps, camber changes, etc.) and more high speed corners than any other track in the world. Obviously it's length is unique but even if it were shorter it would provide tuning opportunities that can't be found on any other racetrack in the world.
One might also wonder why we don't use the recently opened National Corvette Museum Motorsports park. Corvette Racing has already tested there with good results so we may add it to the menu someday. In the meantime, it has been received very well and is quite busy already!
Team Owner
Joined: Sep 2001
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From: Athens AL
C7 of the Year - Unmodified Finalist 2021
C4 of Year Finalist (performance mods) 2019
Good information there, now if you see them testing at one track or another you can guess just what they were working on that day.
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Burning Brakes
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 1,051
Likes: 302
All that testing on track makes one wonder how they could possibly sell so many Corvettes that overheat on track. How can that be possible? Did they not see the overheating while testing on al those tracks that owners who drive their cars fast on track would have to put up with?
Burning Brakes
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 764
Likes: 258
From: League City Texas
All that testing on track makes one wonder how they could possibly sell so many Corvettes that overheat on track. How can that be possible? Did they not see the overheating while testing on al those tracks that owners who drive their cars fast on track would have to put up with?
Drifting
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 1,308
Likes: 123
From: Raleigh North Carolina
All that testing on track makes one wonder how they could possibly sell so many Corvettes that overheat on track. How can that be possible? Did they not see the overheating while testing on al those tracks that owners who drive their cars fast on track would have to put up with?
I'm still curious as to why "all" Z06's don't go into limp mode. From an engineering test perspective it makes me wonder if there is some corner-case style scenario causing the issue or if there is an unique difference in the manufacturing process from car to car.